The Boring Knitter

First things first, our condo is being listed for sale this week with an actual Realtor. We didn’t try too hard to do a sale-by-owner so we’re not surprised that we have to list it. The to-do list is down to just a few things that can be accomplished by the end of today and then we are in maintenance mode. There are going to be FOUR open-houses of different varieties this week and hopefully some individual showings and maybe an offer or two if we’re really lucky. We’re both exhausted already so hopefully our hard work will pay off. Also, our basement storage unit is looking great now (thanks to my sorting abilities) and Jon was a super hero and went to four different places to turn in items for donations and recycling yesterday afternoon.

Noro Scarf

I have a love-hate relationship with Noro. I love the colors and gradual changes, but I hate the thick/thin singles of the base yarn. The yarn even broke once while I was seaming the squares together. But it’s done now and that is what’s important! The color is S188 in the Kureyon Sock yarn. I didn’t notice the black at all when looking at the skein but it’s definitely in there quite a bit. I found the black to be quite jarring compared to the other colors but was afraid I wouldn’t have enough yarn if I pulled it out. I have a good sized ball of yarn left making me think that I have enough for two more blocks so I probably could have removed the black, but it’s too late now.

The block pattern is Willow from 200 Crochet Blocks. It seems to be one of the more popular blocks in the book, and I can see why, but having to make 12 of them was a bit tiring for me. The nice thing with the Noro is that I didn’t have to change colors to get the same effect, but the row starts at different points at times so I had to do some extra slip stitches to get to the right spot.

I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the border and had some pretty grand ideas running around in my head. I knew that I needed to do a single crochet border after seaming to set up whatever I was going to do and was quite taken aback when I realized that the scarf looked pretty good already. Anything too fancy was just going to detract from the blocks so I went with a simple scallop all the way around and called it good. I like the results and will probably try to get some wear out of it this spring if I can. Would I make this again? Probably not. At least not in a thick/thing fingering weight yarn. And definitely not until I can forget how monotonous this was.

Beasts

My Mom left a comment in the last post with an update on Peaches and Callie. Not sure how into the comments people are since my comment level tends to be on the lower side (and I love everyone one of them!) so here it is for everyone to read:

Perhaps your readers would be interested in a Callie and Peaches update.  They are all doing well.  Callie has become very friendly; Peaches sometimes very friendly.  I found 2 dead mice in the downstairs family room where the two of them have “home base”.  At first I thought they were one of their mouse toys – but on closer inspection, clearly not!  My cat, Samantha (otherwise known as Sam or Sammy) captured a young one (mouse, that is) the other evening.  I was able to remove it unharmed to the great outdoors.  Lots of cat sleeping going on and, with spring around the corner, lots of cat fur around also.

Sounds like I’m going to get some kitty killing machines back! Hopefully they don’t try to practice on Nimitz. Haha! I definitely miss having them around with their little kitty antics but there’s no way I could keep up with the fur and dust if they were here. I’m glad they are settling in and with luck they won’t hate me when I see them next.

Nimitz is doing good but is a bit clingy with me still. He was too tired to sit with the scarf this morning though I’m sure he did his best to model. He also did SO GOOD at agility this last weekend! He seems to have conquered his fear of the chute (at least while it’s not all the way spread out) and he focused on the treats on the dog walk (like a balance beam) instead of my hand so he made it across without falling off by the end. He’s so big that he can easily lose track of his back end and if he’s not right on center he’ll slip off the side. Several pieces of equipment had been set up into a hard course (at least to us) and you went through in a “butterfly” or figure 8 pattern with two different center options to direct your dog through for each of the two passes. Nimitz loves going through the tunnel so sometimes he went through instead of walking on the dog walk, but we had it mostly sorted out. And somehow he managed to turn himself around inside the tunnel and come back out the same way he went in one of the times he wasn’t supposed to go in. No idea how he fit doing that so we all got a good laugh. The lab that was in class with us sounds like she might have an injury that she’s resting so there’s just Nimitz and a mini black poodle the last two weeks. Total poodle-palooza!

C25K

I’m so happy to see other people doing this the same time as me. It really helps to not be alone! Nimitz and I did Day 1 of Week 1 this morning and it felt pretty good. I have some tightness in my left leg that I’m trying to keep stretched and rested so I don’t have to stop before I really get started but my asthma didn’t give me any problems. Probably the biggest issue is going to be doing this with Nimitz. I want to go at a speed that isn’t quite natural for him so I’m going to have to either speed up or slow down. We’ll keep practicing and figure it out this week. Also, he likes to sniff a little more than is helpful. The last issue is that there’s some construction going on on our normal 2 mile route which is starting to affect the sidewalk so I’ll be changing up our route for the rest of the week as next week we go to 2.5 miles. Overall I’m feeling good and ready for Day 2!

Weavette

I have entered the wonderful world of weaving. Sort of. I did a little weaving in grade school and loved it so I was pretty sure that I’d like whatever weaving I let myself do now. I didn’t really want to buy a table loom and I don’t have the money to spend on a Wolf Pup Loom or something like that so I was mostly ignoring the pull to the craft. Then I got my Piecework magazine and saw these Weavette Looms. Perfect! I figured that it’s small and portable for moving around and I could use the small shapes to use up scraps of sock yarn. Only problem is that Weavettes (or Weave-Its) are no longer being manufactured  so what’s out there is it. I did some research and found an online shop with rectangular Weavettes in stock along with a pattern book so I put in an order. Feeling a little unsatisfied, I checked out eBay and knew that I didn’t want a square one badly enough to pay those prices and I started thinking that I could make my own with the rectangular one as a model. Then I found that Hazel Rose Looms makes their own Weavette version so I figured that I could save myself the work and bought one from her. It definitely works though I might have to add some polyurethane to this to help stop the needle from scratching but otherwise I’m pretty happy. Also, the two nails for the last weaving row are a bit tightly spaced but it’s not stopping the needle so I can deal with it. I think that I’m mechanically inclined enough that I can make my own from here on out if I want more, but we’ll see. Sometimes it’s worth it to pay someone else so you can keep weaving.

I’ve made a couple more since this photo and I’m really getting the hang of it now. I’m testing out different yarn thicknesses and I may try to double up some of the thinner sock yarns to keep from getting squares that are too open. The purple/pink is Yarntini fingering (it even pools when woven!), the pink/black is STR Lightweight (need to try doubling it) and the solid pink is Cascade 220 Superwash. Since the photo I’ve done a square with STR Medium that turned out nicely and I used up the remaining Duet Dekay yarn from the booties.  I’d like to make squares with all of my scrap superwash sock yarn to turn into a patchwork afghan but that’s a long term endeavor.

Beast

I did a crazy thing on Wednesday. Really insane when I think about it. I signed up to run a 5K. I must have been high on furniture polish or something to do it. The race is run by the Boston Athletic Association and is the day before the Boston Marathon as part of the overall race festivities. There are other small races going on that day so this is just a part of the whole thing. A knitting friend let me know about it after a friend of hers told her so I thought that it might be fun and good motivation to get jogging as I had someone to report to. I knew about the race back in January and had planned to start a couch-to-5K (C25k) in February but the weather was against me. I now have 6 weeks to get through a 9 week program and I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t take a person with a BS in Math to see that those times do not add up correctly. I’m going to start giving the c25k its own section in the blog posts starting next week but for today it’s with Nimitz. Why? Because Nimitz is my jogging partner! Yesterday we increased our walking distance from 1.5 miles on the non-rainy days to 2 brisk miles everyday (except agility days). I even added a little jogging today! Monday we start the actual program and I’ll start adding distance to our walks  each week so even if I’m not able to jog the whole 5k, I’ll at least be used to walking it. He won’t be running the race with me but I’m sure that he and Jon will be cheering me on. I’m not totally sure that Nimitz is on board with this program (photo taken 20 minutes after we got home) but he could stand to loose a little weight. I’ve mentioned before that he was devocalized by a former owner so as long as he’s able to breathe alright, the vet has given his permission to get him moving. He has such a tough life with us!

I’ve had a bit of bad luck with hair dressers since moving to Cambridge. I took a recommendation on a salon from a friend when we got here and I really liked it and I liked the woman I was seeing. After two years she decided it was time to move to a new salon so I got a new person. I was a little crushed as this would have been the longest I’d been with the same person. Ever. The new woman was nice but I wasn’t totally happy with the cuts so I wasn’t too terribly upset when she left for another salon after three appointments. I love my third stylist and was a bit disappointed that she was pregnant and not going to be working through until we left the area. She does great color and funky cuts and is so incredibly sweet that I knit her a baby hat as a gift. I knew that she’d like it because she told me at the first appointment that she dearly wanted a hand knit hat for her baby and offered to pay me. I told her that I don’t do commissions (because I wanted to surprise her with it next time I saw her) and directed her to some places that do lessons. She loved the hat so much that I knew that I needed to make her some matching booties with the left yarn.

Yarn is leftover Duet DeKay from A Swell Yarn Shop in an old club color. I knit the Saartje’s Booties pattern, seams and all. In retrospect, I should’ve been less lazy and knit the seamless version but at the time I didn’t feel like looking up the cast on. And I should have knit these sooner than the night before my appointment. I also didn’t have buttons and I ran out of the beige on the last strap so I supplemented with the main color. I was so unhappy that I was going to put them in the trash, but Jon said I should show them to the Mom-to-be and let her decide. Well. She was thrilled with them! I thought she was going to start crying and we all know that that’s the best kind of recipient of our knits. Before I left she told me that the hat and booties were going to go into her hope chest to save forever and then I almost cried. Except that I’m not a crier  so I gave her a hug and left with a nice warm feeling.

Here’s a close up of the seams and “buttons”. The buttons are a triple knotted braid with extra stitching around the edges to get more of a sturdy button shape.  I can see why the pattern is popular and would definitely make these again. I have a couple of cousins having kids so maybe my three-sizes-too small-heart will decide to knit for them. The Dekay yarn was just enough to knit a Baby Surprise Jacket, the Aviator hat and the booties.

(P.S. The part of my hair was changed from the left side to the right yesterday and it’s SO hard to get used to it!)

(P.P.S. My stylist recommended another person (my fourth) for my last two appointments before moving. My hair cuts tend to be on the funky-ish side so it’s good to get someone who can do that and enjoys it.)

Beast

Nimitz seems to have forgiven my short temper and even snuck up into the bed Monday night while we were sleeping and then got back into his own bed before we woke up. I’m a light enough sleeper that he can’t do that without me noticing, but I decided not to say anything to him about it. I think he’s tired of the rain and snow and cold and being stuck inside so yesterday afternoon, when it was sunny and mild,  he kept asking to go out until I let him run around in the yard for a while. We (mostly he) ran around and we wrestled a little and he got grass and leaves in his hair and it was all good. He came back inside and happily napped the rest of the day. Weather looks like cloudy/snowy/rainy until the weekend so hopefully he can wait until then for his next romp.

I am so ready to get the condo on the market and get this over with. I’m exhausted and it’s definitely spilling over into everything else in my life. I don’t know why I thought that it would be a good idea to make new covers for our pillows before showing but I am so not going to do this again. If I seriously pushed myself I could get a pillow done in two days but three or four was much more reasonable. And with all the cleaning and sorting going on the first pillow really languished (though I did take a break for a week or two while I ordered more yarn). Jon and I are really happy with how well these turned out though so I guess it was worth the effort. The pattern is a simple crochet chevron with a repeat of (3dc, 3dc in one chain, 3 dc, dc3tog). It was a little monotonous by the last pillow but at least it wasn’t requiring much brain power.

The hook was a size F and the yarns are various Cascade and Cascade Heathers. This yarn was so splitty for crochet! It was serious painful at times with how splitty it was and it made the crocheting take a lot longer than it should have. Colors are: 2431 Chocolate Heather, 2452 Turtle, 8010 Natural, 8021 Beige, 9407 Celery, 9452 Summer Sky Heather, 8339 Marine. The lighter green and blue, natural and chocolate where purchased on a whim at Webs so we guessed on the color to match the Pier 1 rug in the living room. Not too bad but not great. I realized quickly that more colors were needed (the darks and beige) so I compared what we had with the other options and ordered more yarn from The Loopy Ewe. Other than the light green, I used less than half a skein for each pillow so the three skeins of each color was a bit of an overkill. The light green needed more because I had to make a starting chain with it. I have enough to make three more pillows but instead will do a small project at the request of Jon and then make a lap afghan.

I worked in the round for these which was much easier than seaming up a side. Each pillow is 17″ square and I did a starting chain of 170. I probably could have cast on half of that and worked the staring round back and forth in the chain to avoid that first seam but my brain wasn’t working that well so I didn’t.

And with both ends having a seam they look sort of similar so that’s not a bad thing anyways. My brain is fried so let me know if you have any questions about something I forgot to mention.

Beast

Everyone is allowed to say poor Nimitz today. My temper and patience are not what they usually are and he refused to do his business this morning until we were both soaked and I walked him to the park. He should have done it right away so I could get home and do some yoga, but instead we were out for over 30 minutes because of his stubbornness. I was angry and made him get off of both the couch and the bed so he didn’t get them dirty and may have been a bit more forceful than usual about it. I felt bad so I put some treats in his puzzle ball for him and he seems to have forgiven me now. I think we’ll take a nap together later on after I finish cleaning the shower and do my nails.

It’s amazing. The sun appeared today for the first time since Monday. The weather people made it sound like it would be next week before we saw sun but here it is today! Rather than blog an almost finished project that I’ll be talking about in detail on Monday, here’s a little color for your Friday.

Fake flowers purchased to use as a bouquet in the yellow room. A bright pop of color to go with all the white furniture.

My Knitterly Things Vesper stash. The Feb club is on its way so this is almost outdated. Definitely need to get knitting more of this stuff up as there’s over 50 skeins at last count!

Beast

To put this nicely, he’s on my naughty list today. We were able to get out and walk today since it had stopped raining and he was so excited. Especially when we noticed a dog on the other side of the street walking the same direction as us. He loves to say hi to dogs and did his normal prance and stare thing but then decided after a couple of minutes that he needed to do something more drastic. He launched himself into the road in an attempt to pull me across and get to the dog. Luckily I had a firm grip on the leash  so all that happened was that he landed in a puddle in the street facing me and then I whipped him back up on the sidewalk. We were also lucky that no cars, trucks or buses were coming as he most definitely would have been hit based on where he landed. I made him stop and blocked his view of the dog until it was mostly out of sight and then we finished up our walk with me having no patience left. He got to say hi to five other dogs on the way but I’m sure he’s thinking about the one that got away. Also, Nimitz has decided that he likes un-making the bed. Very annoying when we’re trying to keep things looking nice in case someone wants to come check the place out. Time for me to get back to crocheting and cleaning now. Have a great weekend all!

Knit Picks

Before I forget again, another one of my knits for Knit Picks is in the March 2010 catalog. You can see their page for it here. I loved knitting these hats and it’s definitely making me want to do more colorwork. Unfortunately I’m on the hook for crocheting those pillow covers for us and I have a new KP project that arrived in the mail this week so it must wait. Here’s my photo from before sending the hats in. Pattern is Spider Hat from All New Homespun Handknit. The top is supposed to be flat when worn so blocking was a little weird though I think it all turned out well. I have an already dyed sock blank in my stash that is in desperate need of over-dying so maybe I can make myself some hats soon. I don’t remember if I linked it before, but I knit the Andean Alpaca Baby Poncho for them which is also in that same book. Maybe I should just go buy myself a copy at this point?

Quilting

This is the quilt that I was pushing to get done before my sewing machine went to my parents house which means it’s probably the first and last quilt to be done this year. The quilt pattern is from the Modern Quilt Workshop and I think the fabrics were purchased from Keepsake Quilting in NH at least two years ago. That should be right because I purchased fabric for another quilt from the same book at the same time.

I made the twin size which is three blocks by five blocks and I have to say that I think I’m really more interested in lap sized quilts from now on. It was nice to take a break from all the sewing of triangles and have just right angles to sew though. Quilting was done on my machine and it’s mostly straight lines the long way. Didn’t want to do anything too fancy to detract from the squares and I was definitely feeling the time crunch.

To fit this on the toddler bed (see the sheep headboard!?) I tucked under one column of squares on the side and the top was folded down so the backing would cover up the towels we’re using instead of a pillow. All of our extra blankets are underneath the quilt so we didn’t have to buy a mattress and we didn’t have to find blanket storage. It’s a little lumpy but except for Nimitz, no one has tried laying on it yet.

I was definitely feeling rushed so instead of separate binding I just folded over the backing fabric for a nice pop of color around the edges. I don’t think that this quilt is really going to get a ton of use but I didn’t want it to be too flimsy to ever use either. It might come out on cold gray days for little extra sunshine and warmth and it’ll definitely be appreciated for that.

Beast

I edited the photo from Monday of Nimitz helping me smooth out the wrinkles on the bed. You can now see his sad little look where he’s hoping that I don’t kick him off the bed because it’s so nice up there compared to the hard floor. He seems to think that avoiding eye contact means that he can keep doing what he wants because he doesn’t see me.  I’m usually laughing too much to make him stop so I guess it works!

Everyone have a good weekend? Jon and I barely stopped moving from the Thursday until Sunday evening when we both sort of shut down. There are a few more things to go to the basement to await further sorting and we haven’t done any of the deep down cleaning that involves water but we were at the point this morning where I could take photos of everything for a sales flyer. Felt good. I’m sure if we go on the market with a realtor that he’ll want to redo them all but I’m alright with that. Nimitz thought that he’d help by laying on our bed to hold the wrinkles down so it’s an all out family effort going on around here.

Stinky Love

Why stinky love? Because the colorway is called Love Stinks. Yarn is Knitterly Things Vesper in striping and I used my standard US 0 32″ circs to magic loop with 64 sts cast on. I do 15 rows of 2×2 rib, knit until there are 5 stripe repeats plus another row or two, do my eye of partridge heel with 3 sts garter stitch edges, decrease the gusset, knit 4 repeats plus one stripe and then toe decreases. I sort of like the simple repetitiveness of these socks as I know my gauge, I know my numbers and different colored stripes give me different socks each time so it’s not totally the same. I’m sure that some would get bored with stockinette striped socks all the time but I’m not. These striped socks are the most worn ones in my drawer and I’m wearing the stinky love socks right now while I type. Definitely need to keep going and make more!

Beast

How sad that “beast” is going to singular for a while. Nimitz seems to have given up on finding the cats and he’s gotten a little less clingy of me. He’s wondering why I won’t slow down and stay in one place though. He found that the arm of the couch with a pillow to prop up his chin was a good place to keep an eye on me the other day as I went back and forth.

This is a long one folks so settle on in with your coffee or tea.

Spinning

I’m going for the spinning first so you can skip the non-crafting stuff if you’d like to that’s at the end. I managed to spin up the fiber I had wanted to before loosing my wheel to storage at my parents and that makes me happy. I really wanted to spin up this 4 oz of Pedal Power I got from FatCatKnits but I was worried about the orange muddying up the yarn like the last fiber I spun that had orange.

To try to keep that from happening, I decided to ply it with Splash. The colors where quite complimentary but it was a hard decision because I had envisioned Splash being on it’s own.

I was thinking leg warmers so I spun thicker than usual to shoot for a worsted weight. I was also thinking that I was on a deadline and spinning thicker would go faster. I ended up with a worsted/aran weight and got 308 yards of it. There was a little extra splash at the end which turned into 8 yards of 2 ply. I love the way the colors compliment each other rather than fight with each other and I could see maybe wanting a cardigan out of this someday.

Here’s a closeup of the unwashed squishiness. I’m still thinking leg warmers but with the lower yardage I might have to think about a cowl/hat combo instead. Whatever I make I’m sure I’ll love it. So I guess this should be called Wet Flowers?

Trip

I was being a little vague about when the cats were going to my parents because I don’t like to advertise travel plans online. Now that it’s over, I can tell you that the cats, their stuff, the sewing machine, fabric, spinning wheel and fiber are all housed up at my parents house now and miss all of it. It’s so empty and lonely without the cats snoring and meowing and keeping me from being productive. I also want to mention that I think my Droid phone is out to get my other electronic devices. I told you all that my laptop screen died on Sunday. Then on the way up north on Monday the GPS stopped being able to find a satellite so we used the phone as a GPS. It seems to be trying to take over my life…  With the GPS, it’s not that we didn’t know where we were going, but I don’t remember all the ins and outs of getting around my home town so we needed something until I got more comfortable navigating.

Callie travels quite poorly since the car accident we were in a few years ago so she gets to sit out with a harness that’s attached to the child seat hooks. No meds for her because of a heart murmur. Except for a little foaming and hyperventilating right at first, she did pretty well.

And since it doesn’t seem fair to make Peaches stay in the carrier, she gets the same thing and sits in the passengers lap. I have to say that after five hours, she puts out a LOT of heat.

We like to stop at our old stomping grounds in Montpelier if there’s time and get lunch at La Brioche. I had forgotten that since it’s Valentines Day there are hearts taped up all over downtown. It’s just one of those quirky things that I miss about that place.

Jon, my Mom and I played lots of Pinochle and I got this amazing, game winning hand during one of the games. Double pinochle and a run in diamonds. I had 64 points and this hand is worth 47 points in meld so I just had to take one trick to make it to 100 and have it count. It was pretty sweet.

Jon and I had less than 48 hours up north which turned out to be just enough to finish my spinning, go to the DMV, try to get the truck inspected, find a truck part that had broken, find a mechanic who would fit us in to replace the part (we have an awesome mechanic that fit in the 20 minute repair unlike everyone else we asked) and then go get the truck actually inspected. We were biting our nails that we wouldn’t fit it all in before we were supposed to go to Jons brothers house, a five hour drive, to visit with them, my MIL and my MILs really good friend that the brothers had grown up knowing. Nimitz and I also got to meet my BILs dog, Macy, who the family got at Thanksgiving last year. She’s a 4 month old Bichon Frise from a local breeder and she’s a pretty sweet little pup. Nimitz play bowed with her a few times but there wasn’t really space to play and he mostly just wanted to nap. Picture an 87 pound dog playing with a 9 pound dog and you’ll get a good laugh. I have a video from my phone but it’s not in a format that I can edit to put online. Towards the end of the night I had Macy on my lap and she slid her way over to snuggle up with Nimitz. It only lasted a few minutes before she couldn’t lay still anymore but it was so cute. Nimitz would normally get up and leave if someone tried to snuggle him but he seems to be warming up to the idea and stayed put.

If the condo sells quickly and there’s time before closing then the girls will come back from my parents until closing. If there’s not time, then they stay there until we get to NH and find a place to live which will probably be December. We have some leads from another Navy guy on dog friendly apartments in Panama City so we may have a place before we get down there which might mean I could at least go through my parents place  for a quick visit, but it just depends on so much on things that we don’t know yet. For now, I leave you with Peaches and Jon in a typical bonding moment for them. I’m sure that deep down she likes him but she’s just afraid to show it…

I don’t have any craft photos ready for you so enjoy this video from our last agility 1 class. The other dog didn’t come so Nimitz was a little puzzled and seemed to miss her. He had also been at the groomers earlier in the week so his brain was still a little fried. Definitely need more work on the weave poles and being patient for treats but he’s got the tunnel down. The trainer says that for just 6 classes we’re doing very well and we’ve already started an agility 2 class. I doubt we’ll get to agility 3 before moving but this is just for fun so that’s alright with us. Enjoy the video!

Sunday morning I went to turn on my laptop, which is kept next to my side of the couch, and was shocked to see that the screen was quite dim. I could vaguely see the desktop but not well enough to do anything. Checked the brightness level and then searched on Jon’s laptop only to discover it’s probably a hardware issue and I’m pretty sure I’m no longer under warranty. I’m not terribly surprised because after five years the case around the screen is not in the greatest shape and Peaches has been known to nap on it when it’s closed. So I’m now banished to the office with an external monitor when I need to be online and can’t do it with the Droid which means I’ll be online a lot less. I’m starting to transfer my remaining functions to the Droid but it’ll take a little while I get my blog email figured out as I need to call customer service for my hosting provider and get IMAP working as I could only get POP to work so far and I don’t want to POP the emails to the phone. Plus I don’t know as I can really blog effectively from the phone so I’ll have to keep the laptop around for that for a while. So anyways, not the best timing.

Kitties

The cat project is up first. I bought this fur last year sometime when my Mom was visiting with the intention of making a fur lined cat tunnel. When I decided that I didn’t like the other fabric I bought to go with it I scrapped the idea and put the fur in a basket on the floor to get it out of the way. To my surprise, the cats loved it! I kept finding them curled up on the furry pile in the basket and quite happy. About a month ago I cut up some foam padding to fit into the basket and did a rough cut of how much of the fur I needed to cover it. Then it sat until Saturday when I thought I should finish it up before my sewing machine, and cats, disappeared to my parents house. I drew the shape of the foam on the fur and hacked at it with some scissors. Then I put it on the sewing machine and made some mostly straight lines around the shape leaving a hole open to push the foam in. The foam went in and I hand sewed it closed since it was too thick for the machine and I had already broken four needles through my own impatience.

As you can see I didn’t take into account the sides being wider at the top of the basket when cutting the foam but I also didn’t care. If you want to see a half-assed project, this is it! I have plans for kitty beds with the remaining fur but I actually care how those turn out so they’ll wait until I can give them my full attention.

The cats don’t seem to care much about the sides as both have napped in it since it was finished. I’m pretty sure the kitties will be pissed at me for leaving them at my parents for so long, but maybe the fur lined basket will soften their cold kitty hearts. Maybe.

Doggie

Nimitz also benefited from my sewing this weekend in the form of three new leash and collar sets. I bought the webbing and ribbon from Windsor Button last fall but didn’t get the hardware until last week. I was waiting to order the hardware so it was totally me procrastinating. I ordered from here and the shipping was super fast and I will totally order from them again! I used the other leashes and collars I had purchased elsewhere for reference so these were pretty easy. Buying them finished can add up to big $$ pretty quickly but I can happily make him several myself for a fraction of the cost. I was hoping to find a pretty green spring color but alas, it’ll have to wait until next year. Nimitz seems to approve and likes the red one.

He definitely knows what color flatters him best! Red shoes, red coat, red collar, red leash. He’s one styling dog. He’s even got his model face going though I don’t think he can pull off the vacant model stare.